Thaumatropes for Valentine’s Day and Beyond

February 11, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Do you know what a thaumatrope is? You probably do even if you aren’t familiar with the word. It’s a particular kind of optical illusion where an image is printed on each side of a disk and when you spin it, it looks like the two images become one.

Maybe you’ve seen this with a bird and a cage, which is shown in this video from Mr Henry’s Vids.

OWL Learning Channel has a video and printable templates you can use to make your own thaumatropes, including a spider and a web, a duck and a pond, some math problems and the word boat broken into two pieces (which is actually pretty cool).

These sorts of toys work because of what’s know as persistence of memory. The brain continues to see an object briefly even after it is no longer visible. Because of this, when you flip the images quickly your brain combines them.

If you want to see a Valentine’s Day themed version, check out this one from Team Cartwright. It has a heart on one side and the words Happy Valentine’s Day on the other, so when you spin it, it looks like the words are inside the heart. Babble Dabble Do has a similar project with a heart and an arrow, which is meant to be a gift tag, or you can just play with it.

This is a fun, easy and low-prep STEM activity to do in the classroom around Valentine’s Day, or it’s a fun one you can do with kids at home.

Once your kids understand the concept, they may want to play with making their own, which they can do with two different drawings, or like this example they can fill a heart with a different sentiment. Or they may just want to play with other printable thaumatropes,

[Photo: Team Cartwright.]

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Fun Owl Crafts for Kids of All Ages

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Crafts from the Beach Kids Can Make

Whenever you go to the beach with kids, you’re sure to come home with some seashells and more than a little sand. Let’s use some of those treasures to make fun crafts.

This handprint craft is made with a sand-infused salt dough and some little shells from the beach. It’s a cute way to remember how little your kids were on that beach trip. Find the instructions at From Under a Palm Tree.

Here’s another take on sand dough that was used to make little ornaments and sculptures. Get the details from Pink Stripey Socks.

Moms and Crafters used air dry clay and seashells to make these cute necklaces. She used the storebought clay but you can also make your own air dry clay if you’d rather.

Crafts on Sea used a shell to make a whale, but I’m sure you could take this idea and make lots of different creatures. I love the idea of sea creatures made with shells like fish or a jellyfish or an octopus using the same method. They also have a seashell decoration made with salt dough that’s really cute and would be fun for kids to paint. Poke a hole before it dries for hanging if you want.

Or take a bunch of little shells and decorate a frame like these from Rhythms of Play. They used a handprint instead of a picture but you could also put in a picture from the beach trip.

This is probably one for the mamas to make because it uses epoxy, but I also wanted to share these cute and easy shell hair pins from Thrifty Mama Ramblings, which kids are sure to want for their mermaid pretend play.

Or how about some sensory play straight from the beach? Use store bought sand if you don’t have a beach nearby to make this beach sand slime from The Mama Notes. Thrown in some shells and kids will love playing with this one.

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